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Students earn credit for exploring humanities as ‘source of justice’
DePaul University is hosting a summer institute this week for incoming students focused on “anti-racism” and “healing through the humanities” for “people of color.”
The week-long program, called “Anti-Racism, Transformation, and Healing through the Humanities,” runs from July 13-18, according to the description provided by DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Participants will receive two hours of academic credit at the private Catholic university.
It is offered to the college’s newly admitted students “who are interested in exploring the humanities as a source of justice and healing for communities historically shaped by, and continuously facing, racism, violence, and dispossession,” the program description states.
Students will collaborate with faculty, current DePaul students, and “special guests” to explore the “healing power of art, photography, literature, history, religion, community gardens, botanicas, and apothecaries for people of color and other marginalized individuals,” the description states.
It also states that students will answer questions such as “How have communities of color engaged in environmental space-making to reclaim health, community, and joy?”
Moreover, they will explore how “people of color and members of other marginalized groups used writing, poetry, fiction, music, art, photography, and other humanistic expressions to inform action.”
According to the website, the initiative advances DePaul’s “Vincentian mission” by compassionately affirming the dignity of all within the school’s diverse community, while fostering “equitable” responses to social and environmental issues.
The school’s Social Transformation Research Collaborative is hosting the program.
The STRC uses “research in literature and language, history and culture” to show “how the humanities deepen our understanding of ourselves and our society, and empower us to act, ethically and responsibly, to counter racism, dismantle violence, and build a more just and equitable society,” according to the program’s description.
The College Fix reached out to the STRC via email for more information on the program, but has not heard back.
Earlier this year, a DePaul University professor filed a civil rights complaint alleging the school is discriminating against students and employees on the basis of race, The Fix previously reported.
The complaint, which Boeck provided to The Fix in January, alleges “non-Black students, faculty and staff are illegally excluded” from participating in DePaul’s Black Equity Initiative, including its leadership committee.
The professor, who is a white male, said he was denied participation in the program.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Students at Social Transformation Research Collabortive’s Summer Institute in 2022; College of LAS DePaul University/Youtube
